The Foreign Service Journal, March 2020

62 MARCH 2020 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA NEWS able FSJ Digital Archive was launched when the FSJ reached the century mark in March, after the work of scanning, tagging and uploading to the AFSA website and then optimizing the entire collection to be searchable and available to the public was completed. The FSJ Archive is a trea- sure trove of unique primary source material—namely, the history of the Foreign Service and diplomacy seen through the lens of the practitioners. The Journal began pub- lishing a series of “Diplomacy Works” articles in 2017 to tell FS success stories that can be used to educate Congress and the public. As part of the AFSA Economic Diplomacy Works initiative, we devoted the January-February 2019 edition to that theme, includ - ing a dozen stories and several analytical pieces on economic diplomacy. AFSA’s collaboration with the National Museum of American Diplomacy expanded during this governing board’s term. We provided content to better tell the story of the Foreign Service, and we partnered with the museum on several events (including a panel discussion in connection with the July-August 2018 collection of stories from s ur- vivors of the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings). The reach of the FSJ expanded. The Journal now appears in Google News searches, and members of Congress regularly contrib- ute Message from the Hill columns speaking to the For- eign Service. The President’s Views column was used effectively as an AFSA policy document. (The December 2017 column and message, “Time to Ask Why, ” was picked up by dozens of media outlets and advanced public awareness of the importance of diplomats and diplomacy.) The FSJ received several awards, including a 2017 Association Media and Pub- lishing Excel Award for the December 2016 special focus on Russia; a 2019 All Media Contest award from Associa- tion TRENDS for the July- August 2018 special focus on the East Africa embassy bombings 20 years later; and a 2019 Association Media and Publishing Excel Award for the April 2018 opinion piece (“Keeping Diplomacy on Track in Troubled Times,” by Ted Osius). The third edition of Inside a U.S. Embassy , published in 2011 and now in its seventh printing, continued to sell well, bringing in revenue (more than $500,000 to date) and serving as a top outreach tool for AFSA. Advocacy The director of advocacy and the AFSA president col- laborate to determine the degree of engagement, the right arguments and timelines for our advocacy efforts on the Hill. At a time when AFSA is at the highest membership level in its history, congres- sional advocacy has been listed as a top AFSA member- ship benefit in surveys. During the 2017-2019 AFSA Governing Board, AFSA emerged as the lead content creator for the U.S. Foreign Service on Capitol Hill. When Congress asked how to coun- ter global power competition, AFSA provided a solution. By demonstrating how the Foreign Service is best suited for the job of promoting U.S. global leadership, AFSA has been able to further build sup- port for the Foreign Service in the halls of Congress. AFSA pushed for a “field-forward Foreign Service”—for having proper staffing overseas—and sup- ported that push by sharing information about how the Foreign Service keeps Ameri- can businesses prosperous and Americans safe at home. Focused on the appropria- tion that funds the cost of moving a Foreign Service member to an overseas post, AFSA helped make a suc- cessful argument leading to an increase in “Overseas Programs” funding by $84 million from Fiscal Year 2018 Inside a U.S. Embassy remains a top outreach tool for AFSA. The View from the Bridge EASTAFRICAEMBASSY BOMBINGS 20YEARS LATER USAID inAfghanistan: What HaveWe Learned? PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION JULY-AUGUST 2018 July-August 2018 FSJ .